Apex Legends War Games Event Kicks Off April 13, Adds 5 New Modes

Respawn's popular battle royale game Apex Legends is launching a new event called War Games that introduces a series of new events and more. The War Games event kicks off on April 13, but the first details and a trailer for it are available now.

The War Games event brings new playlist modifiers that only run for a few days. These special playlists will offer up cosmetics--including the Rampart and 30-30 skins--as well as new Battle Pass levels. There will also be XP challenges that come online each day.

The standard "Play Apex" playlists are also getting five special modes that will be available in "rapid succession" beginning with the War Games launch on April 13. One of these is called Second Chance, and it gives players one free respawn each match. Another is Ultra Zones, which adds multiple Hot Zones where players can replenish HP and shields inside them.

The Auto Banners mode, meanwhile, allows players to automatically retrieve the banner cards of fallen squadmates. In the Killing Time modifier, the round time gets reduced each time a player dies. The fifth new mode is Armor Regen; when players take damage, their armor regenerates after eight seconds; it moves to 16 seconds if your armor is cracked.

You can see a full rundown of the five modes, with descriptions written by EA, below. Additionally, Pathfinder, Wraith, Lifeline, Gibby, Mirage, and Bloodhound are each getting new skins themed around the War Games event; you can grab them in the Apex Shop.

In other news, Apex Legends' upcoming ninth season will feature content themed around Respawn's other big franchise, Titanfall. "I've told some people before, if you're a Titanfall fan, hang on for Season 9 because there's gonna be some really cool stuff there," game director Chad Grenier said.

Apex Legends New War Games Modes:

• Second Chance (Tuesday, 4/13 – Thursday, 4/15): Kicking off the event, this modifier grants each Legend one free respawn per match; once a Legend is killed, a Respawn Token is consumed to rise again from the player's current location retaining all their weapons and gear. After a short duration, the player respawns high in the air to skydive back into the action.
• Ultra Zones (Thursday, 4/15 – Monday, 4/19): Get ready for multiple Hot Zones within a single map, and for more epic loot and gold items. Each Hot Zone is enveloped in a Flash Point - the enormous, glowing bubbles that replenish HP and shields when you stand in them. In this mode, consumable items are still available as normal throughout the loot pool.
• Auto Banners (Monday, 4/19 – Wednesday, 4/21): Adding a rather small but spicy change to squadmate respawning, this modifier lets players automatically retrieve their Squadmates Banner Cards! Players don’t need to loot their death box to retrieve their Banner Cards -- they can just head straight to a respawn beacon. The loot pool has been altered to contain more Mobile Respawn Beacons too.
• Killing Time (Wednesday, 4/21 – Friday, 4/23): This event speeds up the match as Legends fall; during a round, whenever a Legend dies, the round time is reduced. If any given round is a massacre, the ring will close quickly so players have to keep an eye on the round timer to survive this modifier.
• Armor Regen (Friday, 4/23 – Tuesday, 4/27): Closing out the War Games, the Armor Regen will regenerate over time at a rate of 12 points per second in this final mode. Whenever players take damage, their armor will begin regenerating after an 8-second delay; this delay is doubled to 16 seconds if a player's armor gets cracked.